University of Glasgow, College of Arts Graduate School

Note that there are far more slides than we will get through as the sessions will focus on your questions and objectives for attending. The other material is presented as an additional resource.

Supervisor-Student Relationship

Given the minimal problems experienced, this session took a slightly different direction and we discussed the potential value of supervisors in helping to achieve the maximum potential of a PhD. The slides are below:

The supervisor-student expectations questionnaire that I mentioned during the session can be found here: Griffith University This demonstrates how much flexibility there is between supervisory models and may help you to understand your supervisor’s approach.

But what if…?

Approaches to research supervision in the Arts and Humanities are diverse, but subject to a range of regulations and guidelines. These should help iron out difficulties, provided that you are aware of your responsibilities and those of your supervisors. Despite this, sometime tensions arise and it’s important to face up to these as early as you can. At Glasgow University there are a range of mechanisms to help with this. (If your supervisor is the best point of contact to resolve issues – and they usually will be – it may help to refer to this guide to having difficult conversations – We Have To Talk.)

Other members of the supervisory team:

Your co-supervisor may be able to provide additional support, particularly at times when your main supervisor is under pressure because of deadlines or teaching load. The role of the co- or second supervisor is flexible so it is important to have a conversation with everyone involved in your supervision to develop clarity about how things will work and who will do what. I will feed back any challenges with the co-supervision model to the College who will aim to address these through supervisor training – please continue to feed these to me or directly to the College Office (see below).

Adviser of Study:

If you are struggling with this and aren’t able to discuss it with your supervisors (or have tried and things haven’t improved) then look at the Guide to Doctoral Research (available from the right hand menu of this link along with other key documents) for the name of your Adviser of Study. Their role is described in this excerpt from the Guide:

“As a graduate student, you have a designated Adviser of Study. Advisers act in a pastoral role. They will:

• advise generally on College issues, including registration, resources, etc. as well as wider resources available in the University (e.g. SRC, the Disability Service, Counselling and Psychological Services, Financial Aid Team, International Student Support)

• deal with problems which your Supervisors, Subject or School PG Convener are unable to solve, as well as acting as a first port of call for issues relating to the supervision process itself.

The Adviser is not, however, able to act in a supervisory capacity (e.g. they will not read or comment on your academic work). Each Adviser has a weekly offi ce hour, but you may also email him/her to arrange a meeting. Advisers are allocated according to your School.“

The Guide includes a list of Advisers with contact details and office hours.

If you are dissatisfied with supervisors not being around, not replying to emails, offering too few meetings etc then be aware that you should raise these issues – the Advisers are key contacts if you haven’t been able to resolve this with your supervisor(s).

Graduate School Office and Dean

Another great source of advice and information is The Graduate School Office. Although they are a small team, I’ve found them a great source of support and they will probably be able to help you either directly or by letting you know who you should be talking to about your situation. If it is an academic issue they will probably encourage you to directly contact the Dean of Graduate Studies, Dr Barbara Burns (bear in mind Barbara’s level of responsibility and consider her a LAST, not first resort.)

PhD by Practice or Professional PhD

These models of study differ from other PhDs in that they involve either a significant element of creative work (composition, creative writing, sculpture etc) or are based on work-related ideas. There is a growing population of PhD by practice researchers in Glasgow. If you feel that the existing training programme needs to be extended to address particular needs that stem from your research model, talk to the Graduate School Office or Dr Barbara Burns.

In the meantime, here are some resources from outside Glasgow related to this approach which may be useful:

If you are new to UK culture as well as research, there may be additional challenges in developing an effective relationship with your supervisor. It’s important to talk to them about the differences between your “home” research environment so they can appreciate what these additional challenges are.

To help articulate these differences, you might find it useful to refer to the work of Geert Hofstede, an expert in the different cultures presented by countries. With this work I’m always careful to flag up that you should look at this material with an understanding that any individual within a national culture can and will differ from the generalisations that need to be made to present characteristics in an efficient way. However, many people find the model useful particularly as it allows you to compare cultures.

The academic jobs website, jobs.ac.uk also includes profiles of different countries which have a more academic focus and describe the characteristics of their education systems working practices and workplace etiquette.

Social Media

I mentioned the value of social media, particularly twitter for broadening your awareness of academic practice. Here are a few highlights:

ACWRI – the academic writing hashtag (on the evening I’ve updated this page there are links on acwri on pretty much everything we discussed in the workshop – publishing, managing information, academic writing style, use of peers to develop ideas, grant writing…)

PHDCHAT – a online community of PhD students who virtually convene weekly to discuss common issues

In many ways, the real heroes of the PhD community. If you are managing research alongside a full-time job, caring responsibilities or various part-time jobs, you will be aware that there are additional difficulties to manage. We’re trying to build up our resources for part-time students which you’ll find on a dedicated page Part-time research, Full-time challenge. Let us know which additional topics you’d like us to cover here.

Other PT related resources:

Details of the previous conference – I’m not sure this ran in 2015 but is likely to in the future, so look out for notifications from the central research support office and Graduate School.

I mentioned the LSE blog on impact – although focussing on the social sciences, it is still a great resource and the main place for discussions and opinions about the impact agenda. A post from late October looks at the value of academic blogging which we touched on briefly as a mechanism for writing and developing ideas.

The following pages may also be of interest:

New adventures

After nearly 17 years of consultancy, 2017 will bring some changes to Shinton Consulting. From January I'll become the Head of Researcher Development at the University of Edinburgh, as part of the Institute of Academic Development.

The website will stay as it is and I'll update it for the next academic year to support the workshops and events that I had committed to before taking on the Edinburgh role. From 2017/8 this may become a place where I continue to add content but it is likely to be more focused on my role and the experiences I have.

I will continue to work with most of my clients either as researcher development colleagues or collaborating as institutions. If you have found this site looking for researcher development consultancy do still get in touch as I have a great network of people who I'm happy to recommend. From late 2017 I'll include links to a range of people who can support institutions and individuals.

Thanks to everyone who I've worked with at Shinton Consulting since 2000 and good luck with your own careers and research.